Instant Messaging Conversations
Instant Messaging (IM) conversations let your agents discuss topics within your helpdesk, Instant Messaging is great for agents to have discussions about the helpdesk with other agents or with more technical or senior agents. Agents can be added to group chats or simply have one-on-one chats with other agents. All Instant Messaging conversations are searchable and saved in the helpdesk for future reference and Deskpro's Instant Messaging platform combines the functionality of third-party instant messaging software as well as email software, enabling your helpdesk agents to make use of a single communication tool.
Creating new Conversations
Agents can create new IM's as well as group IM chats, this is a great tool that agents use for internal communication between themselves. The ability to start a chat with another agent, create group, departmental or helpdesk-wide chat is possible in Deskpro.
To create a new IM with an individual agent: Click on the "circled +" icon, this lets you create a new IM
An IM with a Specific Agent
Specific IM chats are a really nice way for agents to communicate on a 1-2-1 level. Agents can be a part of more than one IM. The agent's list is sorted alphabetically, starting with the agent's first name. If you send an IM to an agent that is not currently online, they will receive the message the next time that they log on to the helpdesk.
To start a new specific IM:
- To create a one-to-one IM session between yourself and another agent, click on the "circled +" button.
- Select the agent under the agents tab that you wish to IM
- Type the agent's name in the filter field, the filter field will bring up suggestions once you have typed three digits.
An IM with a Group
A group IM is helpful for general announcements throughout your helpdesk team. Name colors are assigned to each agent in the conversation.
Creating New Groups
Agents can create new groups that can be focussed on a certain task. This is beneficial in solving issues in the shortest time with the correct agents at hand.
To create a new group:
- Click on the "create new IM group" icon
- Name the group chat and select the agents you want to add to the group
- Click "Create Group" to start messaging your new group
Leaving a Group
Agents added into a group by the group creator can leave a group chat if the chat is no longer useful to them. The group will still be available to view the content but the agent that has left the group won't be able to participate in the discussion anymore.
Deleting a Group
Group creators have the ability to delete a group by clicking on the bin icon. This will delete the group and all of its message history and data.
Managing your IMs
Manage your IM's by sorting through and leaving all the group chats that are no longer needed, closing all individual chats, this helps to de-clutter the chat drawer. New IM's that are started will bring up any historical chats between the two agents.
Notifications
New message notifications on IM's let your agents know that they have new messages when the messages are received.
- Recent history - the most recent chats are shown at the top of this list
- Agents with unread messages, will be shown the number count next to their name tag
- Messages that you send to other agents are right-aligned in a lightly shaded blue speech bubble
- Messages that are sent to you, are left-aligned and in a white speech bubble
- All messages are timestamped and have date breaks in between days
Search within a Conversation
Searching within an IM speeds up the time taken to get to the relevant information much faster than scrolling through the full body of text held in the IM chat looking for the exact discussion had with another agent in the past.
To search through IM's:
- Click on the search icon in the top right. This will reveal the search drawer
- Type your search query into the search drawer
- Search results will appear, highlighted in yellow, once three letters have been typed into the search drawer
- Search results will be shown with a timestamp and in chronological order - most recent entries first
- Click on the entry that you are searching for and the conversation will be scrolled to that point
Adding Attachments
Adding attachments to your IM's lets agents send files or screenshots or other files that will help the agent assist the user. It lets the more technical agents focus on their roles and gives the more user facing agents the ability to assist the users.
To send an attachment:
- Click on the attachment button within the text box
- Drag and drop into the "Drop File" box or click to search for the attachment
- Once uploaded, hit "Enter" and the attachment will be sent
Adding Emoji's
When communicating electronically, sometimes it may be difficult express an opinion without sounding rude or offensive. Adding emoji's to your agent IM's can bring a sense of clarity and can even add a bit of humour to a conversation should it be necessary.
To add emoji's to your chats:
- Click on the emoji button in the text bar
- Select the emoji you want to send, or type the appropriate text for that emoji e.g. :smile:
- Press the Enter key to send.
Links to Deskpro objects
Much like adding attachments to IM's, linking various objects within Deskpro in IM's can speed up the time it takes to resolve an issue that a user may be experiencing. Agents are able to link older tickets and chats to IM's so that the user-facing agent can get to the information that will help to solve the user's issue in the shortest possible time.
To link Deskpro objects:
- Click on the link button in the text box
- Select the object that you wish to link to the chat, Deskpro will show any object you have open in a tab
- Enter text before or after the link to add context to the link
- Hit "Enter" to send the attachment
Moving a Conversation
Agents can move IM's or chats up or down the queue in the chat header, this could be used to sort group chats into an order that makes sense to the agent. Keeping the most frequently used chats closer to the front of the queue
To move a chat closer to the front or further away from the most recent chat:
- click and hold on the agent's chat icon and then move the icon forward or backward in the list
Removing a Conversation
For large helpdesks, having IM chats with many of the agents can cause the IM header to become overpopulated. Reducing clutter in the agent's IM header will help them to be more productive.
To remove a conversation or group discussion:
- Hover over the chosen IM, an "x" will appear at the top right of that icon, click that "x" and the chat is removed.
- The chat will be reactivated when the agent responds to a previous message thread, or the conversation is selected from the menu again
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